Gordon Strachan wants his Scotland team to attack Lithuania “from everywhere” in tonight’s World Cup qualifier.
But it is far from guaranteed that prolific Celtic marksman Leigh Griffiths will be one of the forwards given a Hampden start.
The national team manager revealed that the former Dundee striker, who pulled out of the previous Scotland squad through injury, missed a couple of days’ training through the week.
And Strachan made it clear that he doesn’t want to rely on one player to get the goals that will make it two wins out of two in the early stages of the 2018 World Cup qualifying campaign.
“I have to pick a team that is rounded so we can have a variation of attacks from everywhere and we can defend as a group,” he said.
“It’s not the be all and end all that you’re scoring lots of goals. It’s can we win and score lots of goals?
“That’s the consideration. What is the most rounded team to have us attacking and getting goals from a lot of positions, rather than one?
“I keep saying to the boys I don’t want us to be a one-dimensional team that only attacks one way. I don’t get that.
“If you’re one-dimensional, whatever way it is, if you stop that there’s not a plan B.
“The strikers are different personalities. You pick the best personality and technique for that group that you’ve got around you.”
On Griffiths specifically, Strachan reported: “He’s missed a couple of days, more than the rest.
“But when he has trained he has been a threat, there’s no doubt about that.”
Oliver Burke had just completed his £13 million move to RB Leipzig when the squad assembled for the Group F opener in Malta.
The subsequent weeks have seen the Kirkcaldy-born winger earn his place in the Bundesliga club’s first team and score for them.
But Strachan stressed that Burke is far from alone in being brimful of enthusiasm for the international double header against Lithuania and then Slovakia.
“You take what you can off people who are on a winning streak and are feeling good about themselves,” he said. “It’s fantastic.
“For others it’s a release from maybe not doing well with their clubs. But if there’s somebody not doing well or who is down then they’ve disguised it well this week.
“The boys have come along with a spring in their step.”
Contributing to that spring in the step was the rarest of beasts – a Scotland win in the opening match of a qualifying group.
Strachan said: “In Germany (the first game in the Euro 2016 campaign) we put in a performance but it was nice to get on the plane with three points this time, there’s no doubt about it.
“We’ve been trying to keep the momentum going in training, keeping it intense.
“These guys have left nothing to chance. They’re working hard.
“The fans will be behind us at the start but we have to give them things. They want shots, headers, crosses, tackles, good football and good passing.
“We used to kick lumps out of people here on a bad pitch but football has changed. It’s a different game. It might be patience we need.
“Years ago you knew that teams out of pot four and pot five would sit in there. Lithuania have pressed high in their last couple of games. You have to clear your mind of what you saw 10 or 15 years ago.”
If Strachan has options in forward positions, it is nothing compared to left-back, where Andy Robertson, Kieran Tierney and Lee Wallace have taken the phrase “strength in depth” to a new level, according to their manager.
“I’ve never seen anything like it in training,” he said. “To have three left-backs like that.
“If you take Stephen Kingsley and Craig Forsyth as well, if we could only play left-backs and goalies we’d be doing terrifically well.”
Darren Fletcher wins his 75th cap tonight and Strachan believes he is the perfect role model for his fellow team-mates and youngsters in general.
“There are great examples for kids if they want to see them,” he said. “Darren Fletcher’s one of them. There’s not a tattoo on his body, he doesn’t walk about with headphones and a cockatoo hairstyle. He doesn’t wear outrageous shoes.
“He just plays the game of football. He’s a smashing advert for any kid and he’s great for us.“
